MULTIMEDIA: Artist's Sculpture a Feat of Mechanical Engineering

By IBT Staff Reporter On 10/27/11 AT 5:36 PM

(Courtesy/Asia Society)

Korean artist U-Ram Choe has created a seal shaped sculpture that looks like antiquated clockwork at first glance, but has an eerily lifelike appearance. Hundreds of components - gears, bearings and motors - work together to make the sculpture appear to be breathing.

The installation, which Choe is displaying at Asia Society Museum in New York, is called Guardian of the Hole. He based his moving piece on a 10th-century Indian sculpture called Shiva as Lord of Dance.

I wanted to feel and express the cycle of life and the history of the universe, Choe said in an interview with Asia Society. It was interesting to me that the metaphors in ancient mythologies could still apply to modern society.

Choe says his creativity is completely genetic. His parents were sculptors and his grandfather was a mechanic.

Asia Society plans to keep the robotic sculpture on display until Dec. 31.